Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed!

I woke up sort of early and late today. Early and late at the same time? Yes. There was a mix-up last night and we ended up with no overnight caregiver. So I got up several times last night to help Mom get to the bathroom including at 6 am (early), which resulted in me being very tired in the morning so I finally got out of bed about 9 am (late). Mom looked refreshed when she woke up about 10.


Yesterday Joey wanted us to keep the cats out of Mom's room so they wouldn't scratch her because of her low platelet count. But Mom would have none of it, they're her buddies. So we compromised, the cats can be in the room but Mom needs to cover her bare legs so that they don't accidentally scratch her when they step on her. The cats didn't care.

What? Me worry?

I had been thinking about what to do if the hospice supervisor said it was okay for Mom to take a shower. I decided if their decision was to allow her to take a shower, I would agree only if they would agree to give her transfusions if she was injured in the shower. Joey called to let me  know that her supervisor said, "No showers". Yay! No arguing over keeping her safe!

In the meanwhile I have been encouraging Mom to try the bed bath before she says she doesn't like it. I reminded her that she used to tell us that we should try things before we said we did not like them; fortunately with dementia the old memories stick around longer than the short term memories, she sheepishly agreed that's what she and Dad used to tell us. I told Joey this and also that Mom thinks the bed bath will not get her clean, she said she will specifically ask Yumiko to use a lot of water on Mom so its feels like a shower to her.

Got the invoice for the 1st 2 weeks of overnight caregivers. Based on the projection of how many hours we would need, the invoice is for a little over $3800. Which means about $7600 per month for Mom's overnight care. It's a good thing she saved so much on her medical costs that she can afford overnight care!

Tomorrow Paula & Russell are stopping by for a visit at lunch; I also take Dad to his doctor's appointment tomorrow. Aunty Florence and Tomiko will be here for a visit from Sunday through Thursday. And Kai comes in on Tuesday; he's staying for a week and will be helping out with overnight Mom-watching duty.

We're doing an experiment overnight. We found some stale pork rinds (best by December 2016) and put a piece out to see if the ants will go for it or avoid it. We have now watched about half a dozen ants walk right by it. Ants seem to have a random search pattern so it may not mean much that they haven't found it yet.

One hour in to overnight test.

Happy Birthday to Kippy! Happy Farm Rescuer Day, Artichoke Hearts Day, Everything You Do Is Right Day, Freedom of Information Day, and Panda Day!